Ch. 3 Section 1
the mostly solid, rocky part of Earth
What is the geosphere?
a mixture of gases that surrounds a planet
What is the atmosphere?
the warming of the surface and lower atmosphere of Earth that occurs when carbon dioxide, water vapor, and other gases in the air absorb and reradiate infrared radiation
What is the greenhouse effect?
a community of organisms and their abiotic factors
What is an ecosystem?
a heritable change in the characteristics within a population from one generation to the next; the development of new types of organisms from preexisting types of organisms over time
What is evolution?
a portion of the Earth that is water
What is the hydrosphere?
a gas molecule that is made up of 3 oxygen atoms
What is ozone?
the continuous movement of water between the atmosphere, land, and the oceans
What is the water cycle?
anything that can carry out life processes
What is an organism?
the selective breeding of organisms for specific desirable characteristics
What is artificial selection?
the solid, outer layer of Earth that consists of the crust and the rigid upper part of the mantle
What is the lithosphere?
the energy that is transferred as electromagnetic waves, such as visible light and infrared rays
What is radiation?
the change of state from a liquid to a gas
What is evaporation?
place where an organism usually lives
What is a habitat?
extremely small, single-celled organisms that usually have a cell wall and reproduce by cell division
What is bacteria?
a block of lithosphere that consists of the crust and the rigid, outermost part of the mantle
What is a tectonic plate?
the transfer of energy through material
What is conduction?
any form of water that falls to the Earth's surface from the clouds
What is precipitation?
describes the non-living part of the environment including water, rocks, light, and temp.
What is an abiotic factor?
an animal hat does not have a backbone
What is an invertebrate?
the process by which rocks break down as a results of chemical reactions
What is chemical weathering?
the lowest layer of the atmosphere in which temperature drops at a constant rate as altitude increases; the part of the atmosphere where weather occurs
What is the tropsphere?
the part of Earth where life exists
What is the biosphere?
an environmental factor that is associated with or results from the activities of living organisms
What is a biotic factor?
an animal that has a backbone; includes mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish
What is a vertebrate?